8~ on the BOOKshelf

“You can cover a great deal of country in books.” ~ Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

We read aloud together as a family almost every day. In summer we sit in the shade of our plum tree, in winter we snuggle up for hours inside with pillows and favourite quilts. Sometimes we do handwork while we read, sometimes we just get whisked away to another time, another place. We have been to many worlds in books. Some of our favourites are listed below (picture books, novels and non-fiction too), and as the children find inspiration, they will even add reviews of some of them.

an incomplete list, a work in progress….

africa
A Glorious Age in Africa
Journey to Johannesberg
The Rat-Catcher’s Son
Mary Slessor:Forward into Calabar
Stories From Africa
Cry, the Beloved Country Heart of Darkness
The Golden Goblet by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (Egypt)
Star of Light (Morocco)
Beat the Story-Drum-Pum-Pum (Nigeria)

america
Paddle to the Sea
Minn of the Mississippi
Anne of Green Gables series
Little House on the Prairie series
American Adventure Series
Little Britches series

asia
The Cat Who Went to Heaven
The Church of the East
Marco Polo
Children of the River by Linda Crew (Cambodia)
Little Pear (China)
The Story of Ping (China)
The Five Chinese Brothers (China)
The Diary of Ma Yan: the Story of a Chinese Schoolgirl by Ma Yan (China)
God’s Adventurer:Hudson Taylor (China)
Li Lun, Lad of Courage (China)
Mission to Cathay (China)
The House of Sixty Fathers (China)
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (China)
Homesick (China)
China’s Long March (China)
Granny Han’s Breakfast (China)
Teresa of Calcutta (India)
Gandhi (India)
William Carey:Obliged to Go (India)
The Big Wave (Japan)
Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun (Japan)
Year of Impossible Goodbyes (Korea)
Tales of A Korean Grandmother (Korea)
The Kite Fighters (Korea)
Tnagles Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story (Laos)
Ghengis Khan and the Mongol Horde (Mongolia)
The Mongols (Mongolia)
Anna and the King (Siam)
Daughter of the Mountains (Tibet)
The Land I Lost: Adventures of a Boy in Vietnam by Quang Nhuong Huynh (Vietnam)
Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up in Vietnam by Quang Nhuong Huynh (Vietnam)
Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelen (Vietnam)
A Boat to Nowhere by Maureen Crane Wartski (Vietnam)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Murder on the Orient Express

australia, new zealand & south pacific
Then There Were Nine
Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

europe
The Ramsay Scallop
I Am David
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
White Stallion of Lipizza (Austria)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Denmark)
Mary, Bloody, Mary by Carolyn Meyer (England)
Madeline (France)
Twenty and Ten by Claire Bishop (France)
In Search of Honour (France)
Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett (Greece)
The Hiding Place (Holland)
The Little Riders (Holland)
The Wheel on the School (Holland)
When The Dikes Broke (Holland)
The Apprentice (Italy)
Escape From Warsaw (Poland)
The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly(Poland)
Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelen (Russia)
The Impossible Journey by Gloria Whelen (Russia)
Heidi (Switzerland)
Leyla:The Black Tulip by Alev Lytle Croutier (Turkey)

great britain
Swallows and Amazons
Katie Morag
James Herriot’s tales
Beatrix Potter
Eagle of the Ninth
The Shining Company
A Parcel of Patterns
Good Queen Bess
Master Cornhill
Shakespeare Stealer
The Great and Terrible Quest
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Oliver Twist
William Wilberforce
Our Empire Story
Scotland’s Story
Quest for a Maid by Frances May Hendry (Scotland)

all over the world
Seabird
Around the World in Eighty Days
Catching Their Talk in a Box

imaginary worlds
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Hobbit
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Pickles to Pittsburgh

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” ~ Mark Twain

5 Responses to “8~ on the BOOKshelf”

Hi all,
I would add “the silver sword” by Ian Serraillier to your Europe section loved it when I was a kid. I would also suggest taking the kids to Haarlem in the Netherlands if you get there not only to see the Corrie Ten Boom Museum, where the jewellery shop is still owned by the Ten Boom family and St Bavo Cathedral was one of the most beautifully peaceful places I visited while I was in the Netherlands.

Thanks for your thoughts Sharla – oh yes, how did we miss that book? It’s an absolute favourite round here! We haven’t planned our Europe leg yet, but consider Haarlem to be added to the list of would-like-to-do-s!

Great list. We’ve read some and will look into others. By “America,” I take it you mean North America and not the United States of America, right? The Anne of Green Gables books, which I loved as a kid, take place in Canada’s Prince Edward Island.